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Attempts aimed at drawing in more visitors into the East African region have acquired momentum, with a number of officials promising to mutually market Rwanda, Uganda plus Kenya as a single destination for tourists at forthcoming expos plus major events within the East African Community – EAC and internationally.

Some of the key forthcoming events which this region plans to jointly promote include the Martyrs Day commemorated in Uganda on the 3rd of June, Kwita Izina held in Rwanda slated for 21st of June, the Magical Expo in Kenya scheduled in October as well as in November at the World Travel Market held in London.

This strategy was publicized by the tripartite initiative’s national coordinator Monique Mukaruliza, while updating on the advancement of the marketing initiative during the ministerial meeting held to talk about modalities of the execution directives of the projects on the Northern Corridor integration.

Mukaruliza informed the people at the meeting that the foreign missions of these 3 nations had already started marketing this region as one single tourist destination.

Just one month back, the 3 countries had a joint exhibition plus promotion in South Africa at the Indaba Fair, which is considered to be the biggest travel trade show on the African continent.

Mukaruliza went on to say that these 3 countries were as well taking on different campaigns to create knowledge about the not so long ago introduced single tourist visa to make easier the process of promoting this region as one tourist package destination.

The inter-country visa enables tourists to move between Rwanda, Kenya as well as Uganda at only $100. This comes as a result of a combined initiative as well as a decision by the presidents of these 3 nations to market tourism the 3 member countries.

Prior to the introduction of this single tourist visa, Uganda plus Kenya used to charge a fee of $50, whereas Rwanda charged $30 per entrance.

At the moment, Tourists can now enjoy various activities inside the 3 member countries at a reasonably priced fee rather than paying separate charges and also wasting time at the borders, thus making this region even more competitive and also attractive to several visitors.

The plan is anticipated to make certain that the three states have a large share of the estimated fifty million tourists that visit this continent every year.

Joe Ole Lenku who is the Interior Cabinet Secretary for Kenya said that through the combination of services like tourism, this region is going to boost its capacity to trade with other countries in the world.

Each of these countries prides in a rich cultural and historical back ground, offering you an opportunity to enjoy their thrilling and sad past such as the mass murder in Rwanda in the early 90’s during the Genocide, the region has a wide array of African tribes each with its unique language and amazing culture, explore the various wildlife parks and game reserves to see the different birds and animals among which are Africa’s Big Five, the mountain Gorillas plus the rare tree climbing lions.

It is obvious that Rwanda is a secure destination for all travelers including women. This is certain to those taking a safari guided by an experienced tour company that has several years of practical experience in offering safe trips to visitors. We are credited for offering safe as well as traditional cultural safaris into Rwanda as well as Uganda in which visitors have an opportunity of interact with the peaceful friendly people.

Prior to embarking on your tour to this country rich with culture also known as “the land of a thousand hills”, it is crucial that you get to understand the different “do’s” plus don’ts”. In relation to the ladies, you will find special practices that are culturally needed from them in this amazing nation including:-

Safari Clothing For Women and design: The majority of Rwandese women (particularly those living in towns) are more mindful with regards to fashion as well as dressing. Wearing second-hand clothes from the US doesn’t stop them from retaining their outlook beautiful and presentable. During a safari in Rwanda, a woman tourist is recommended to put on clothes which cover-up all her thighs as it is not culturally good to put on short clothes in public places. A number of the clothes which are culturally recognized well within the county consist of jeans, Khaki trousers, skirts as well as dresses. Always endeavor to be on the traditional side when selecting what to wear in Rwanda

Jewelry: During a safari, visitors are recommended to prevent wearing any gold jewelry, diamond rings, plus necklaces as well as other related belongings in public. This is to prevent luring opportunists while on your Rwanda Safari.

Money Purse: do not carrying your handbag freely in your hands when in busy areas of Rwanda for safety reasons. Put the purse over your shoulder and maintain your hands over it retaining it to your side. It will help to safeguard the bag from people with motives of snatching it. When attempting to get into some buildings such as supermarkets, you may be instructed to offer your purse for examining and don’t hesitate to abide.

Passport: Always carry with a copy of your original passport rather than the original due to the lengthy process involves when replacing it. Keep your originals in a secure place where it’s impossible to easily obtain access to. This is applicable to all the other travel and identification documents as well as credit cards.

Carrying mobile phones: Visitors can acquire a mobile phone locally at approximately USD 15 – 25 so as to remain in contact with their people back home as well as their Rwandan friends.

Private walking: Visitors can choose to take a walk within Kigali during the day. But, it isn’t recommended to walk during the night and if you should, move with someone, if possible a Rwandan. When walking, remain on the main road and keep away from isolated places such as slums.

Rwanda Nightlife:Nights are usually safe for ladies to even go dancing. However, go with somebody to remain on a safer side. A Rwandese friend can do you well through the entire night.

Meals and Restaurants: You must understand some useful social norms of Rwanda with regards to eating and selecting where you can enjoy a meal from. Avoid eating from areas you aren’t well familiar and try to think about the hygiene of the locations you intend to eat from. Do not eat raw cabbages or even salads except if it is in a nice hotel or even restaurant.

Yesterday President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya officially apologized to Rwanda over letdown by the East African countries to intervene and save Rwanda from the dreadful 1994 genocide.

The president of Kenya together With other east African Heads of State plus dignitaries laid wreaths at the Genocide Memorial found in Rwanda’s capital Kigali during the twentieth Anniversary of the dreaded Rwanda Genocide.

The President said that although all countries offered no help as the people of Rwanda were brutally harassed and even murdered, it wasn’t acceptable for the countries of the East African region to as well standby and not take any action.

He was repentant that for one hundred days as the genocide swept through, Rwanda fatally suffered devoid of the rest of the world trying to step in and realize the “never again” oath made following the Jewish Holocaust.

He went on to say that our region as well stood aside, and because of that we be are obliged for the most thoughtful apology to the Rwandese. Immediate help was surely expected to come from the close to them and we should establish an independent means and will to safeguard the lives and future of our children.

The president who is as well the chairman of the East African Community released a statement from rwanda’s Kigali right after attending the ceremonies to mark the 20th anniversary of the genocide together with twenty other presidents and government officials from all corners of the world.

The Secretary General of UN Mr. Ban Ki Moon as well attended the ceremony which brought together various delegations from more than 10 countries from Canada, the African continent, China, USA, Britain as well as Germany.

Part of the activities during the memorial included laying of wreath by the presidents plus other dignitaries at the Kigali Genocide Memorial found in Gisozi where very many remains of the victims are laid to rest.

Paul Kagame the president of Rwanda and Ban Ki Moon lit a torch that will burn for one hundred days, to mark the number of day genocide lasted.

In those 100 days different communities will gather together to commemorate their friends and family they lost to the genocide and even support survivors. On 4th July it will mark the twentieth anniversary of the end of the terrible genocide. It will as well be a time to reflect on the story of the power of endurance, reconciliation as well as country building.

The President of Kenya said that although such mass violence wasn’t expected to happen again in Rwanda, the many lessons learnt from this were sufficient to justify caution stating that it is for this reason that there is a regional force always on standby to make sure that there is peace.

He traced the genocide in Rwanda to the racist ideology by colonialism that practiced the policies of division and fright. He made it clear that there was reason enough to make sure that the East African region is as tough on security plus mutual support, as it is in economic integration plus trade.

George Leonard Carey the former Archbishop of Canterbury during his visit has described the country as a happy and rapidly developing country following its positive response to the post-Genocide issues. Carey made these remarks yesterday, right after he had given a politeness visit to President Paul Kagame at Urugwiro Village within Kigali.

He had last visited Rwanda back in 1995, right after the Genocide in 1994 against the Tutsi people, and he mentioned that this country had considerably improved ever since that time.

He went on to say that this country has reacted wonderfully. It is currently vibrant and it is recovering from all the miseries of what actually happened during those dreadful days. Currently this is a strong and confident nation that is taking the right direction. Rwanda is currently booming with development and tourism especially. Gorilla trekking is synomymous with Rwanda Safari Tours.

During the past Twenty years, Rwanda has preserved a growing economy-at nearly 8% yearly development on average over the last 10 years and with exceptional signals in the simplicity of conducting business as well as battling corruption.

Tearfund for the poor

Carey the Archbishop of Canterbury from who served from 1991 up to 2002, had traveled to his meeting with the President of Rwanda Mr. Kagame by associates of Tearfund, a charity based in the UK that helps the poor communities within over Fifty countries, among which was Rwanda.

The Rwanda Minister for Local Government, Mr. James Musoni, informed the media that this meeting was typically concerning thanking the President of Rwanda for leading this country to development throughout the past Twenty years.

Musoni went on to say that Tearfund operates poverty reduction initiatives within fifteen districts inside the country, including activities of farming plus battling against violence based on gender.

Carey praised the “pro-people method of governance” implemented by the government and urged the president to stay on course.

He added that a president is meant to serve the people. It is the local people that matter and that must be up most within his mind as well as he is certain it is.

Also existing in the meeting was the Rwanda Archbishop of the Anglican Church Onesphore Rwaje.

This day is of sad memories, as the people of Rwanda remember their losses, it’s a day when they remember how the entire world simply watched as close to one million of the compatriots were killed in the most ferocious way.

However it is as well a day as we re-affirm the new direction of the country of forgiveness with regard to peace, for the good of healing the deep wounds on their hearts, for the sake of the country reconciliation. The Gacaca Courts have handled nearly all cases of criminals who came forward to and acknowledged their involvement plus crimes and requested for forgiveness. However make no blunder, the people who masterminded these horrifying crimes, people who fueled the assault, promoted as well as facilitated it, we should search for them until the even the last one is brought to proper justice. today the people of Rwanda can proudly say that they share the NEVER AGAIN just as the Jews and just as they do, never again shall we let down our shield, reduce our caution and even stop protecting our newly found mindset of RWANDAISM, it is a one people in a one country, united’ authored a consistent contributor when required to share the emotions as ‘The Land of a Thousand Hills’ begins the yearly commemoration of the terrible Genocide on Monday, which was experienced across the entire country back in 1994.

The plane of President Habyarimana shot down by the rebels … murder the cockroaches! those untrue reports as well as stirring plus inflammatory messages flying across the country’s airwaves as soon as the presidential jet was brought down during its the final approach towards Kigali International Airport, by one of the air missiles that were fired by his very own soldiers in opposition to his peace talks held in Arusha, as it’s today correctly known. international radio stations such as the VOA as well as the BBC in just hours reported the mass murders that had began across the areas of Rwanda that were in the hands of the then governing regime.

National media within Rwanda informed the supporters of their regime to begin massively killing, they gave out machetes, long drafted lists were distributed of the target killing within Kigali plus in other town across Rwandan as well as the UN forces within the country, rather than being re-enforced were ultimately taken out, leaving thousands and thousands of Rwandans, tagged only for their ethnic history and also in a number of their political connection as well as prosecutions, to the cruel killing squads, that, when eventually chased out of the nation while they ran across the borders into Congo, they left close to one million people dead in their aftermath.

Those murderers however, most of them, continue to be camped outside in the wilderness as well as in the Eastern Congo mountains, still dedicated to return and complete the task they began in 1994 and also the FDLR evidently operates beneath the unspoken approval by the governess in Kinshasa. FDLR militias, who in reality are nothing but just a terrorist group, normally work side by side with the national army of Congo and has up to date been saved by the UN intervention force within Eastern Congo, that in huge contrast followed, what has today been perceived as pro-Rwandan militias, with a payback a year ago, removing all the stops to complete them off entirely. Yet again, and I’m not alone in stating this, has the United nations failed Rwanda through acting selectively as well as through showing evident bias towards the enemies of Rwanda, enemies that stand charged with the most revolting crimes against mankind, back in 1994 and ever since then through imposing from time to time savage treatment on the people of Congo as well as the people of Rwanda living in exile within Eastern Congo they believe don’t foot their line.

Having witnessed and experienced up close in June 1994, the distressing effect these large killings had on the peaceful Rwanda people, who were beaten down, put to death, shot, bombed as well as burned by crazy unhappy opponents who simultaneously killed babies, young children, women, boys, the elderly as well as men, close to one million people, it’s with some level of shock, even for myself being a pretty frequent visitor into the country, which I write about today. Two decades following a morning broadcast by BBC service in Africa published the news as I was in my bed in Uganda’s capital Kampala to see the broadcast of Focus on Africa, I am in shock about how Rwanda rose from its ashes, I’m still in shock about how the today’s Rwanda stands a number of heads over her neighbors with regards to infrastructural developments, anti-corruption policies, traffic discipline, economic progress as well as security. I stay in shock how Rwanda has rendered tourism a primary sector, percolating rewards down to the grassroots, has greatly invested in the advancement of her state airline and it was the very first African country to allow all citizens of the African Union member countries Visa on entrance. I am in shock how Rwanda has managed to transform the genocide sites into museums, memorial sites and monuments, demonstrating that an agonizing history is nonetheless history and therefore is to be maintained alive for generations to come and also for the existing generations, the people of Rwanda produced pre and post the genocide not to mention the visitors traveling from overseas. Several people today make a pilgrimage of this kind, just like the way international visitors still visit Nazi concentration camps the place where they go to pay their respect to the deceased. I stay in amazement as Rwanda implements her innovative forestry policies that have seen forests such as Nyungwe as well as Gishwati restored re-cultavated as well as intensely protected while in other nations in the region and far are still battling with this. I remain in awe how the country has adopted information technology just as a couple of other African countries and it’s no wonder that Rwanda has turned into an information technology hub on the African continent, other than being named as a country in which beginning a business and conducting business is ranked among the finest on the planet.

My eyes aren’t closed to the difficulties Rwanda faces however being governed as a well known ‘Rwanda Incorporated’ nation is on the right course and economic development, coupled with a robust, principled as well as disciplined leadership through the echelons of the government, will in the future without doubt prove all critics wrong and then her friends right.

My sympathy is out to all the natives of Rwanda, including the countless friends, while they commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the terrible genocide and, as a country united, move together and preserve the memories of those brutal 100 days.